Hockey

“David Reinbacher is exactly where he’s supposed to be right now”
Félix Forget
“David Reinbacher is exactly where he’s supposed to be right now”
Credit: Getty Images

Last night, the Canadiens prevailed over the Flyers in a warm-up game. Much has been made of the Xhekaj brothers' fine outing, but David Reinbacher also caught the eye… for not so good reasons.He didn't look dominant on the ice… and he made some mistakes.Given that the player hasn't been unanimously praised since the second he joined the organization, this worried many. On Tony Marinaro's Sick Podcast, Lapierre reassured us that

David Reinbacher is exactly where he's supposed to be right now.

–

Maxim Lapierre

Basically, what Lapierre is explaining is that Reinbacher, having missed so many games over the past two years, obviously needs a little more time to find his feet. The kid isn't ready to play in the NHL, and that's not the end of the world (especially with Noah Dobson now in town). But in reality, we can understand some who would have liked to see more from a player drafted fifth overall two years ago. Except that…If we take the example of defensemen drafted a year before Reinbacher, we notice in particular that Simon Nemec and David Jiricek, two guys drafted in the top-6 of their draft, are still not established in the NHL. We're talking about guys who have played games in the show (87 for Nemec and 59 for Jiricek), but also guys who are still fighting to prove they can be NHL regulars right now.And these two guys, unlike Reinbacher, haven't suffered a major injury that completely derailed a crucial development season. So they're older and healthier than Reinbacher, without being far ahead of the Austrian. It's also worth noting that if you look at Reinbacher's vintage, only two defensemen have played NHL games… and they've played seven between them (six games for Luca Cagnoni and one game for Hunter Brzustewicz).Reinbacher didn't look great yesterday, and that's okay (and normal) to note. But Lapierre is right about one thing: just because Reinbacher isn't ready to be an NHL regular doesn't mean he's behind the curve.Far from it, in fact.

'Overtime'

– What do you think?

– Very cool!

– No. Next question.

– I think so.

– Woah.

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